Brand center template: pages, content and structure
This page is a content template for a brand center, also called a brand hub or a brand guidelines site: the place where staff, agencies, partners and press find your brand rules and the approved files. It is free and complete on this page, with no sign-up form. Fill in the cells here: your answers are saved in this browser and the tables export as CSV. The result is the content plan to build the site in whichever tool you choose. The last section compares the kinds of tools that can build it.
The template covers what goes on each page. For the reasoning behind the homepage layout, the access tiers and the navigation, read how to design a brand center.
1. Decisions to make first
| Decision | Your answer |
|---|---|
| Who are the two or three main audiences (staff, agencies, partners, press)? | |
| What does each audience ask the brand team for most often today? | |
| Which content is open to anyone, which needs a link or password, and which needs an account? | |
| Who is the single named owner of the brand center? | |
| Which languages does it need at launch? | |
| Where do the files live: in the brand center tool itself, or in an asset library it reads from? | |
| What address will it have (for example brand.yourcompany.com)? |
The answer to the file question decides how much maintenance the site needs. If files are uploaded to the brand center by hand, someone has to repeat the upload each time a file changes.
2. Site map
A structure that works for most organisations. Remove the pages you have no content for; do not publish empty pages.
| Page | Purpose | Audience | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Says what the site is and routes each audience to its content | All | Open |
| Brand story | Purpose, positioning, values, in one screen | Staff, agencies | Open |
| Logo | Variants, files, minimum size, clear space, misuse | All | Open |
| Colour | Palette with values and usage | Designers, agencies | Open |
| Typography | Typefaces, weights, hierarchy, font files | Designers, agencies | Open, font files restricted if the licence requires |
| Imagery | Photography and illustration style, with approved examples | Designers, agencies | Open |
| Voice and tone | How the brand writes, with examples | Writers, agencies, staff | Open |
| Applications | The rules applied: stationery, presentations, social media, signage, packaging | Designers, agencies | Open |
| Templates | Editable files people start from | Staff, partners | Restricted |
| Asset library | Product images, campaign material, video, by collection | Staff, partners, press | Mixed, per collection |
| Campaigns | Current campaign toolkits | Staff, partners | Restricted until launch |
| Press kit | Logos, executive portraits, boilerplate, press contact | Press | Open |
| What's new | The latest additions and changes, with dates | All | Open |
| Contact | Who to ask, and for what | All | Open |
3. Homepage
| Region | Content | Your version |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Your wordmark, the label "Brand Center", search, sign-in | |
| Hero | One sentence saying what the site offers, one image, one link to the library | |
| Collections | Four to six cards named after what visitors come to do | |
| Quick access | Permanent links: logos, guidelines, colours, typography, templates | |
| What's new | The three most recent additions, with dates | |
| Footer | Brand contact, terms of use for the assets |
4. Logo page
| Variant | Use it for | Files to provide | Minimum size | Clear space |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary logo, full colour | Default on light backgrounds | SVG, PNG, PDF or EPS | ||
| Primary logo, reversed | Dark or photographic backgrounds | SVG, PNG, PDF or EPS | ||
| One-colour logo | Single-colour print, engraving, embroidery | SVG, PDF or EPS | ||
| Stacked or compact version | Narrow spaces | SVG, PNG | ||
| Symbol or icon alone | App icons, social avatars, favicons | SVG, PNG in fixed sizes | ||
| Co-branding lock-up | Partner and sponsor use | SVG, PDF or EPS |
Then list the misuses, each with a picture:
| Do not | Why |
|---|---|
| Stretch, rotate or skew the logo | |
| Change its colours | |
| Place it on a background with too little contrast | |
| Add effects such as shadows or outlines | |
| Rebuild it from another typeface | |
| Use a retired version (show which, and what replaced it) |
5. Colour page
| Colour name | Role | HEX | RGB | CMYK | Pantone | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | ||||||
| Secondary | ||||||
| Accent | ||||||
| Neutral, dark | Text | |||||
| Neutral, light | Backgrounds | |||||
| Status: success, warning, error | Interface only |
Add one more table for accessible pairings, because a palette does not tell a designer which text colour is readable on which background:
| Text colour | Background colour | Contrast ratio | Passes WCAG AA for body text (4.5:1) |
|---|---|---|---|
6. Typography page
| Role | Typeface | Weight | Size and line height | Fallback font | Licence and where to get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headings | |||||
| Body text | |||||
| Captions and labels | |||||
| Numbers and data | |||||
| Office documents and email |
State the fallback for people who cannot install the brand typeface. Without it, presentations and documents are set in whatever the software defaults to.
7. Imagery page
| Topic | Rule | Approved example | Example to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject matter | |||
| Light and colour | |||
| Composition and cropping | |||
| People: who is shown, and how | |||
| Product photography | |||
| Illustration and icons | |||
| Stock and AI-generated images: allowed or not, and under which conditions |
8. Voice and tone page
| Principle | What it means | Write this | Not this |
|---|---|---|---|
Add the fixed elements writers ask for: the company boilerplate in 25, 50 and 100 words, the spelling of product names, capitalisation rules, and words the brand does not use.
9. Applications and templates
| Application | Rules to show | Template file to provide | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presentations | Master slides, title and content layouts | PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides | |
| Documents and letters | Letterhead, report layout | Word or Google Docs | |
| Email signature | Layout, logo size, legal line | HTML or text | |
| Social media | Profile images, post formats per network | Editable template per format | |
| Advertising | Layouts per format, logo position | Editable template | |
| Signage and point of sale | Sizes, materials, placement | Print-ready PDF | |
| Packaging | Dielines, mandatory elements | Dieline file | |
| Video | Intro and outro, lower thirds, logo placement | Project file or motion template |
10. Asset collections
| Collection | Contents | Audience | Access | Owner | Review date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logos and marks | Every approved variant, zipped and single | All | Open | ||
| Product imagery | Pack shots and lifestyle images per range | Staff, partners, press | Open or link | ||
| Campaign toolkits | Key visuals, templates, cutdowns per campaign | Staff, partners | Restricted until launch | ||
| People and places | Executive portraits, offices, events | Staff, press | Open or link | ||
| Video | Brand films, product films, cutdowns | Staff, partners | Per film | ||
| Previous campaigns, still approved | Material that may still be used | Staff, partners | Restricted |
Every asset in a collection needs a status, usage rights and, where it applies, an expiry date. Without those fields the site cannot stop showing a file that is no longer approved.
11. Ownership and upkeep
| Task | Owner | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Review the homepage and what's new | Monthly | |
| Remove retired logos, expired images and ended campaigns | Monthly | |
| Review searches that returned nothing | Monthly | |
| Check that every download link works | Quarterly | |
| Review the guidelines against current practice | Yearly | |
| Review who has an account | Every six months |
Tools to create a brand center
The template works in any of these. They differ in where the files live and in who can maintain the site.
| Kind of tool | How the brand center is built | Files | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand guidelines platform | Guideline pages written in an editor made for brand and design documentation | Uploaded to the platform, or linked from a design tool | Teams whose main need is documented rules for designers |
| Digital asset management system with a brand portal | Portal pages on top of the asset library | Served from the library, with versions, rights and expiry | Teams whose main need is distributing approved files to many people |
| General website builder or wiki | Pages built by hand from generic blocks | Uploaded as attachments or embedded from elsewhere | Small brands with few files and a web-literate owner |
| PDF guidelines on a shared drive | One exported document | Loose in folders | A starting point; it has no search, and old copies stay in circulation |
Questions that separate the options:
- When a logo file is replaced, does the site show the new one without anyone editing a page?
- Can an asset be hidden automatically on its expiry date?
- Can a visitor without an account download the logo?
- Can you see what was downloaded and what people searched for?
- Can someone outside the design team update a page?
If distribution matters more than documentation, the brand portal software checklist has the full list of requirements to test.
How this maps to Freedam
We make Freedam, a digital asset management system with a brand portal, so it belongs to the second row of the table. What it covers from this template:
- Logo, colour and typography pages. The brand guide holds logo variants with minimum sizes and clear-space diagrams, colour swatches with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values that copy on click, typeface specimens with font downloads, do and don't examples, and a brand kit download as a ZIP file.
- Other pages. Custom pages are built from blocks, grouped in spaces with their own address, default language and theme, and have a draft, review and published workflow.
- Asset collections. Collections read from the library, so a replaced or expired file changes on the site without editing a page.
- Open access. The public portal lets visitors without an account browse, search and download what the access rules allow.
Two free tools need no account: the brand center generator renders a homepage preview from your website, and the brand center gallery shows worked examples by sector. The demo is a working library with a brand guide you can open, and create a brand center lists the ways to start one on Freedam.